


Friends

by bukkunkun



Series: Bukkun's あ☆り☆が☆東堂☆尽８! Giveaway [1]
Category: Noli Me Tangere & Related Works - José Rizal
Genre: ?????? i ahve so many questions, Alternate Universe - College/University, Arguing, Class Differences, Crying, Ice Cream, M/M, anyway this is trashy don't read this, crisostomo is a fricking twink, there are way more characters but not enough tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 01:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2090094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bukkunkun/pseuds/bukkunkun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Don’t worry, Elias, I’m on post-paid unli calls!”</p>
<p>
  <strike>Sweet.</strike>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [ valkaas](http://valkaas.tumblr.com/) on tumblr as part 1 of my あ☆り☆が☆東堂☆尽８! giveaway.
> 
> Since Elias' twin sister does not have a name, I named her Elisa because reasons.
> 
> ~~that summary is extremely suspicious.~~

_Ipaglaban! Karapatan ng mamamayan!_

The sun was beating down on him unforgivingly as he yelled into the megaphone again, the cheers of students and teachers and civilians behind him like a wall of concrete strength behind him, the only pressure keeping him up front, the only pressure he needed to finish this through the end.

Enough was enough. As always. He had been to one too many rallies as he would have liked, but without a proper push, there will be no action.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a woman carrying her child with her and he nearly scowled.

He also knew, though, that though he had multitudes behind him, that didn’t mean that the wall behind him was as strong and well-versed as he would like it to be.

(While he was, definitely angry at the administration, seeing people playing bingo at the side lines of the rally made his blood boil even further. Why would people even join in like this if they themselves didn’t know _why_ he was up there in the first place?)

The rally ebbed into a brief break, and he cast a dirty glare at the police surrounding them, but he jumped off the makeshift stage to accept the bottle handed to him. Sighing deeply, he downed nearly half of it, before wiping his brow.

Today was hot, he thought to himself, leaning against the stage and peering around at his fellow rally-goers, also taking a break. He sighed a little and smiled.

At least he had them.

“Man, it’s hot.” He chuckled as he pulled his sweat-soaked maroon shirt off, slinging it over his shoulder before taking a swig of the water again.

A few metres away from him, the young man came to a complete stop, a flush on his face as next to him his childhood friend slowed down to a stop, peering at him curiously as she came back to his side and held her umbrella over the both of their heads.

“Cris?” she asked, waving her hand in front his face. “Cris. Crisostomo.” She nearly called, snapping her friend out of his daze for him to blink dazedly at her. “Are you okay?”

“Man, it’s hot,” he immediately replied, before shutting his mouth and shaking his head. “Sorry. Uh.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and turned to look at what he was looking at and she grinned. “Oh, my God. Who is that beefcake in those jeans and those tattoos?”

“I don’t know,” Crisostomo replied hurriedly. “Another boneheaded rally leader who does nothing all day but yell at the government, whatever. Maria, can we go away now?”

Maria Clara was, if anything, determined to a fault when she really got into it.

“Hell no, he’s hot!”

Crisostomo scoffed. “He probably fools around a lot and smiles that stupid looking smile and greets people like family, and when he does that thing with his hands, and his arms—Maria.”

Maria Clara smiled at him knowingly. “Cris.”

He rolled his eyes and grabbed her wrist. “Can we leave? Now?” he pressed, “I’m sure you can do this tweeting thing from the side lines and _not_ , possibly, in the middle of the rally?”

“You’re just saying that because that Elias guy makes you flustered.” Maria replied sweetly, and Crisostomo flushed, but she giggled and pulled him away. “Whatever you say. I’ve got an assignment to do.”

He rolled her eyes at her and let her pull away, but not without casting one last glance back at Elias, who, much to his shock, was staring right back at him.

He forced a scowl on his face and he smirked back at him slowly, before gesturing at the megaphone next to him on the stage.

Crisostomo rolled his eyes and mouthed ‘ _no way_ ,’ at him before storming away.

* * *

“Seriously, does that rich kid ever  _actually_ participate in rallies?” the young woman asked, plopping down next to her brother to share lunch with him. “I’m getting this feeling he just comes around to stare at you or something.”

“He’s doing it to piss him off.” Salome spoke up, settling down across them, Elias barely acknowledging her as his twin Elisa smiled at her and gestured for her to approach them. “You know how those two argue. When that happens things tend to, well, you know,” she winked at Elias, who rolled his eyes and faced away from her, petulantly sipping at his drink.

Elisa looked unconvinced. “Elias is _not_ that big a dick to start fights with people like that.” She paused and cast a sidelong glance at her brother, and he snorted, smacking her side lightly.

“Don’t you even dare.” He replied. “Ibarra and I aren’t exactly on the best terms with each other. Living two different ideals end with heads butting you know.”

Salome shared a long look with Elisa, clearly disbelieving, but Elias threw his hands up in defeat. “Tell me again why I hang out with the two of you.”

“Because you don’t have any other friends.” The two women replied almost automatically, and Elias shook his head, leaning back against the wall as he grinned at them.

“I should find new friends.”

* * *

“My name is Maria Clara. Let’s be friends?”

Elias looked up from the photocopies of the assigned readings he was looking at to see a pretty young woman holding her hand out at him, smiling expectantly as she bounced on her heels.

“Aren’t you that Ibarra guy’s friend?”

“Observant.” She smiled knowingly, taking a seat into the armchair next to him. “So I heard you were looking for new friends.”

“I said I should find new friends.”

“Same difference.” She giggled, settling down into place next to him. “So, Cris is fine, he’s struggling in his Bio 1 class, but that’s just because he sucks at science classes.”

“I didn’t—”

“Oh, and he’s going to SM later with me to go pick up some stuff. You wanna come along? I can maybe drop a line with Elisa or something to sort some schedules out, and…”

Elisa. Why wasn’t he surprised?

“Look, Maria, I really don’t—”

“Great!” Maria was saying, holding his phone next to hers, and—wait, when did she get that—inputting her number after importing his to her phone. She handed him his phone back and he gingerly took it, realising how it looked like a rock compared to her sleek iPhone, but she wasn’t saying anything about it as she hummed happily to herself, texting away to someone and—

His phone vibrated. It was a message from Maria. Why she couldn’t just tell him, he doesn’t get, but—

_Oh and by the way, Elisa and I aren’t coming along to SM. We’re a bit busy, but I hope Cris will be good enough company for you._

His eyes widened. “Hey, wait—”

“The professor’s here!” someone hissed as they ran into the room, soon followed suit by the professor, and the class started.

Elias didn’t get a chance to tell Maria he didn’t want to go as it completely slipped his mind.

* * *

“So.”

“So.”

Two grumpy young men stood up by their best friend (and twin sister) sat across each other with steadily melting ice-creams (care of Maria) in waffle bowls, glaring suspiciously at the other.

Elias furrowed his brow and glowered down at the melting ice cream (who eats _ice cream_ for _more than a hundred_ Pesos?), crossing his arms petulantly.

“I’m sorry, Elisa’s plans got us both into this.” He eventually decided to say, peering at Crisostomo, who looked up from where he was also glaring daggers into his ice cream to look at him and shake his head.

“No, it’s completely my bad for Maria. I knew I shouldn’t have gone along with this.” He hurriedly replied, shaking his hands defensively. “I knew it was a bad decision but she’s my best friend, I just couldn’t say no—I really need to work on my judgement.”

“Hm. I can attest to that.” Elias snorted inelegantly and Crisostomo drew back, visibly ruffled.

“ _I’m_ not the one running around in the middle of the yelling into megaphones at every damn leader of the government.” He snapped back, and the dark-skinned man drew back as well, offended.

“At least I’m doing _something_ , what about _you_?” he retorted, “I bet you don’t even care.”

“Damn it, I do!” Crisostomo nearly growled, hands balling into fists, “I don’t believe in bonehead violence, that’s all. There are many other _better_ ways to get change to happen without ruining your reputation!”

* * *

Somewhere outside the store Maria, Elisa and Salomé gave each other worried looks.

“You said they like each other,” Salomé hissed at the two of them, and Maria nodded quickly.

“This is always how they start, they just need a little more time.” She insisted, and Elisa frowned and bit her lip.

“They look nearly ready to murder each other.”

“ _Trust me_!” Maria squeezed the two girls’ hands in hers, grinning slightly. “You don’t know this but Cris always leaves before the fight ends, do you ever know why?” The two of them blinked at her blankly, as her grin widened. “Watch.”

* * *

When it felt it start to come, Crisostomo froze, and abruptly stood up. “I-I have to go.” He hurriedly muttered, turning away, but Elias scowled and grabbed his wrist.

“No. you’re always running away when we—holy _shit_ —”

Big, round tears welled up in the smaller man’s eyes and Elias stood up as well, mouth hanging open in shock and surprise as in front of him Crisostomo sniffled and made a noise of disappointment and tired annoyance as he hurriedly wiped at his eyes.

“That’s why…” he hiccupped, “I said I had to go. Asshole.”

“Oh, my God. I’m, uh,” Elias was at a loss for words as Crisostomo sat back down, wiping at his face in a frustrated manner. Slowly he took his own seat and gingerly scratched the back of his head. “Wow.”

“There, it’s out, I cry when I get angry.” Crisostomo bitterly sniffed, glaring at Elias as best as he could. “I bet you think it’s hilarious.”

“… Sorry I made you cry.” The dark-skinned man mumbled, and Crisostomo gaped at him. “Uh, I didn’t really yell at you because I wanted you to, I just got caught up in the argument, and, uh…”

Crisostomo shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I know your cause is a noble one, it was wrong for me to criticise you for it.”

The two of them shared a private smile together, and Crisostomo sighed, sitting back in his seat.

“The ice cream’s melted.” Elias commented offhandedly after a long moment of comfortable silence.

“The store’s hotter than usual.” Crisostomo shrugged, looking at his own puddle of ice cream in his bowl. “Kind of like how it gets when you walk into a room, to be honest.”

“What?” Elias blinked, and Crisostomo froze, suddenly realising what he just said. “Wait, did you just tell me I’m hot?”

“No, I did _not_ , you self-centred jerk!” Crisostomo immediately yelled, getting up from his seat. “Okay, now I really _have_ to go!”

“Hey, wait—”

Crisostomo stormed out of the store, flustered and embarrassed beyond return, leaving behind a half-grinning Elias as he shook his head fondly and finished off his molten ice cream.

“Well, well. All you had to do was say something.”

* * *

It didn’t take long for Crisostomo to notice that the arguments between him and Elias had decreased and morphed into long-winded chats about each other and how their days had been, and before long they were frequent callers to each other (“Don’t worry, Elias, I’m on post-paid unli calls!”) and soon enough they started hanging out together—not fighting, not at rallies—just good-natured walks in the park or around campus, or having lunch or dinner together, or just coffee at some hipster café on Katipunan that Elias particularly likes making fun of while Crisostomo further debates the delight of specifically-roasted coffee beans.

Soon they were exchanging gifts and going out on movie nights or seeing the newer flicks at the cinema.

Before long people started noticing as well.

“Crisostomo, I didn’t know you and Elias were on good terms now.”

“Good terms?” the young man blinked at Captain Tiyago, who shrugged as the two of them watched Maria play tennis with her friend Sinang.

“Maria’s been telling me that you two have been calling each other more often these days.” The man clarified, shrugging, without looking at Crisostomo.

“Ah, well, it turns out he’s actually pretty good at Biology—”

“One would think the two of you are dating.” The man continued like he hadn’t been talking and at that Crisostomo stared at him for a long time. He turned to look back at his daughter’s best friend and frowned. “What’s the matter?”

“Excuse me for a moment.” He mumbled, getting up from his seat and hurrying outside to pull his phone out and—okay, _shit_ , Elias was on speed dial, but now was not the time to be deliberating on that minute detail—called Elias.

He didn’t even give Elias the chance to speak when he blurted out, “Are we dating?”

There was silence on the other side of the line, and Crisostomo was hopping on his toes. “ _Elias_ ,” he whined into the phone. “Talk to me.”

“Are _we?_ ” the man’s voice sounded unfamiliarly uncertain, and Crisostomo flushed.

“Can we?” he asked, and suddenly he heard that overly obnoxious bark of relieved laughter on the other side, and he couldn’t help but smile fondly at that.

“ _All you had to do was say something_.” Elias sighed.

“Is that a yes?”

“ _Of course. But you’re going to have to tell me this again face to face._ ”

Crisostomo laughed. Elias, ever the old-fashioned man.

“Only for you, my Elias.”

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:
> 
> \- That ice-creamery is Cold Stone at SM North Edsa. It's nice but pricey there.  
> \- That 'Cris' bullshit was taken from that modern AU novel of Noli.  
> \- Never trust anyone with a post-paid unli call service from Globe or Smart or Sun. They will, always, prefer to call you. (i am joking pls)


End file.
